Art Academy: Atelier

Spread over three courses, there are 16 lessons and 14 Mini Lessons. The streamlined Mini Lessons allow you to perfect your skills with the minimum of fuss, as they don’t feature any theory, history or demonstration.

Beginner Course

Here is where you begin your artistic journey, as you learn the basics of form, tone and colour. Explore still life, then move on to some introductory landscapes.

Lessons – Tomato, Apple, Lilies, Strawberry, Egg, Landscape, Seascape.

Mini-Lessons – Tree, Boot, Lemon, Oranges, Fields, Avenue.

Advanced Course

Build upon established learning, and refine your skills with more challenging still life and model work, along with landscapes comprising complex details.

Lessons – Still Life, Cat, Parkland, Bust.

Mini-Lessons – Lantern, Copper Plate, Deer, Kingfisher, Pond, Castle, Young Lady, Dancer.

Tools Course:

Apply your expertise with complete freedom, as you create that definitive masterpiece on your own!

Lessons – Pencils, Pastels, Coloured Pencils, Charcoal, Paint.

Master strokes

As you begin your first lesson, you’ll discover how the Wii U GamePad works in harmony with your TV. Whenever Vince is tutoring, the lesson appears on both screens. Sometimes, you’ll need to refer to highlights on the GamePad, but once it’s your turn to start creating, you’ll be able to see the subject on your TV, while you draw or paint on the GamePad. You can also switch the TV image between the subject, Vince’s examples, and your own efforts – perfect for checking out your progress on a large scale!

The GamePad also plays host to various extras, such as a Grid to aid composition, a Zoom for detailed work, and a Colour Wheel to match hues from a reference image. You can undo and redo the last mark you made, and if you discover an unfamiliar term, simply consult the Glossary!

Pencil set

There are four types of Pencils available:

Pencil (2H, HB, 2B, 4B, 6B), Graphite Stick, Earth Tones Pencils (Brown, Red, Pink, Beige) and a White Pencil.

Coloured pencil set

With a huge range of colours and shades, this set gives you the chance to recreate your subject with a fine, smooth pigment that only pencils offer.

Pastel set

Known widely for their softer tones, this 48-strong set shows how Pastels can also be concentrated, lending a luminosity to all your gradients and blurs.

Charcoal set

This features Willow Charcoal, Compressed Charcoal, Fusain (H, HB and B hardness) White Chalk, a Blending Brush and a Chamois.

Each set comes with a Smudge Stick, a Vinyl Eraser and a Putty Eraser for amending your art or removing marks.

Paints

Using a wide variety of brushes, you’ll have 96 Palette slots to mix colours, and can dilute your paint with water, if you need. Changed your mind about a section? Use the rag to wipe paint from the canvas or paper!

Miiverse

You can share your creations via Miiverse, Nintendo’s network service that brings together like-minded communities from all over the world. Artwork created by others is sorted using predefined tags for easy searches and can be viewed without leaving the software. 

Exporting to SD card

You can also save your creations to an SD card to view on a computer, email to a friend or print from a compatible device.

Another useful function is the ability to use an SD card to save in-progress lessons, should you need the extra space for all those works of art!

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